White House Declines Elon Musk’s Offer to Pay TSA Agents — Here’s Why

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The White House has reportedly turned down Elon Musk’s offer to pay the salaries of TSA workers.

According to CBS News, the White House is basically unable to accept his generous offer, even if they wanted to.

This is because civilians are barred from directly paying government employees’ salaries.

The money would have to be donated to the Treasury and allocated by Congress — which is exactly what Democrats are refusing to do right now.

Nick Sortor explained further:

BREAKING: Elon Musk’s offer to pay TSA salaries has been DECLINED by the White House, per CBS

President Trump signaled his excitement over @ElonMusk’s offer, and was moving forward with trying to make it happen.

But federal laws severely limit private citizens’ abilities to pay US government employees, and this is likely a reason Elon’s offer has been declined.

While private citizens are free to donate as much as they want to the Treasury, the Constitution requires Congress to appropriate the funds prior to disbursement from the Treasury.

Which they obviously haven’t done.

Elon Musk is a gem for offering his help!

He tried his best.

Here’s more from the CBS News report:

The suggestion was taken seriously by Trump administration officials, but there could be legal challenges for Musk to cover the pay, even indirectly, because of Musk’s various government contracts, one source said.

Another reason: White House officials believe the partial shutdown is likely to end soon, according to sources…

Administration officials had debated whether Musk could give the money to the government’s general fund, which could then be used to pay the workers. An outside individual is legally barred from paying government employees directly, according to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told CBS News, “We greatly appreciate Elon’s generous offer,” and she added, “The fastest way to ensure TSA employees — and all DHS employees — get paid is for Democrats to fund the Department of Homeland Security.”

The cost would be about $250 million, two sources said.

This comes as the TSA is about to miss their second full paycheck due to the DHS shutdown.

Hundreds of employees have already been forced to quit, and many have resorted to finding alternative ways to pay their mortgages and feed their families.

More on that here:

Acting TSA Administrator Testifies Before Congress – Nearly 500 Employees Quit, Some Officers Resort To Selling Blood And Sleeping In Cars

It’s utterly shameful that Democrats are letting people suffer because of their own stubborn refusal to fund the DHS.

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